1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor design technology, and more particularly to a discharge circuit.
2. Related Art
In general, electronic products externally receive power and use the power to perform various operations. When sudden power-off occurs, an electronic product may not ensure a normal operation.
Similarly, a semiconductor device may be driven using external power supply. For example, a NAND flash memory may operate using the external power supply. In a normal operation, the NAND flash memory may internally generate a high voltage (i.e., a boosted voltage) using the external power supply, use the high voltage for a specific block, and perform write, read, and erase operations. To this end, the NAND flash memory may include a high-voltage generating circuit configured to generate the high voltage using the external power supply. In the case of sudden power-off, the high voltage used during a read or write operation may not be normally discharged so that stored data may be distorted or errors may occur in the read operation.
Basically, after a NAND flash memory finishes a write or read operation, a high voltage needs to be safely lowered using a discharge operation so that the NAND flash memory may be put into a standby mode. However, when sudden power-off occurs, the NAND flash memory may not perform a normal discharge operation so that operational errors may occur.